More Than Just Singing
by Brackenfrond
Summary: Nico thought Glee Club just meant singing. He didn't think it meant finding a new family, facing so much drama and having everyone think he is in love with his best friend, which he is not. Despite the current teenage drama he has to face, there's something darker going on - after all, the life of a demigod is never simple. 'Singing' Wasn't in my Contract re-write.


"I still don't understand what the point of this is." Nico muttered, tugging his aviator jacket further around himself, standing with Percy and Annabeth as Thalia shoved her silvery hunters parka into her locker, looking at the timetable she'd stuck up on the door. Thalia was ridiculously organised, unlike Nico, who had literally shoved everything aside from his bag into his locker in a small mountain of stuff. It had caused Annabeth to look away from it and shudder. "If it's such a big deal, why can't Chiron do the usual and just send satyrs to scout these kids out?"

"Nico makes many excellent points, surprisingly." Thalia hummed, closing her locker and turning back to face the group, reclining against the lockers behind her. "Why did we have to come?"

"Because," Annabeth started, tightening the ponytail her hair was currently tied up in. "The magical energy he detected was high. Unusually so. He figured that it might be a large group of demigods, or something more. Possibly a monster. We're here to scout, keep an eye out, make sure nothing's amiss."

"Oh." Nico blinked. "So basically what we spend our lives doing, but with more school?"

"We've got a smart one here." Thalia said dryly and Percy snorted. "Honestly, Annie, as far as I can tell the only monsters around here are the regular, human ones."

"And they can be worse than the actual monsters." Percy pointed out, shifting his bag slightly.

"I still think that satyrs could have dealt with this better than us." Nico grumbled. "You know, because this shit is actually their job and not ours."

"Oh, shut up, di Angelo." Thalia rolled her eyes. "We're here now, so we might as well make the most of it. And, you know, not complain."

"Thals has a point." Percy agreed, ignoring how Thalia bristled at the nickname. "This is probably going to be the most normal our lives are ever gonna be. Cherish the moment, Neeks, cherish it!"

"Don't call me Neeks." Nico muttered. "And I have a feeling you have just jinxed us."

Nico was just joking, of course. Well, about the jinxing thing.

But he was right. He just didn't realise how much madness highschool life could hold.

XoooX

Nico's day got turned around when he first met Kurt.

At the time, he hadn't expected anything different, to be completely honest. He had a good sense of wrong and right, if he said so himself, and one kid being ganged up on by two much taller, bulkier jocks than him...well, that was not cool.

"Hey!" Nico had made his way over, standing next to the other boy. He was taller than him, slighter, with crystal blue eyes and pale skin. Not as pale as Nico's, mind. In fact, Nico must not look like much of a threat to the taller boys, with his too big eyes and sickly pale skin and too big aviator jacket. Then again, that had never hindered Nico before. "What the Ha - hell do you think you're doing?" The jocks didn't have the decency to answer his question. Honestly.

"You a fag too?" The black one said, and Nico raised an eyebrow as the other one laughed.

"Got yourself a boyfriend, lady?" Honestly, they needed to find better insults.

Nico had the brief impulse to lie. To say that, no, he wasn't gay. This was a new school, a new start. Time to craft a new life for himself, to get over his crush, to find and date a girl. To be normal.

His eyes flickered to the other boy, who looked a cross between relieved and worried. And Nico decided to fuck it.

"Yeah, I am. What's it too you?" Nico was surprised to find the wind knocked out of him when the second jock knocked him into the lockers, before the two stalked off. "Bastards!"

"That's Karofsky and Azimio." The boy said, biting his lip. "You didn't have to do that."

"Yeah, I did." Nico brushed invisible dust off himself. "They were complete and utter pricks. You weren't doing anything wrong." He shrugged. The boy smiled.

"I'm Kurt. Kurt Hummel. You are…?" Nico offered a hand, which Kurt shook.

"Nico di Angelo. Just started here." Kurt's eyes widened.

"This is a terrible way to start here, really." He admitted. "We're not all that bad. There's a group of us…well, we're accepting. At least, more so than those two." Nico grinned and allowed himself a moment to take in the entirety of Kurt's outfit.

"Nice bowtie." He couldn't help but say, smiling honestly and Kurt returned it brilliantly. "So, this group…?"

"We're the glee club here." Kurt laughed at Nico's confused look. "We sing. Perform. We're not exactly well respected here. We're the misfits, but we're like one big family, to be completely honest."

The misfits...yeah, Nico knew how _that _felt all too well, to be shunned by others. Because of who you were, because of something you couldn't change, something you couldn't help. He did have a sort of family, now, but even they didn't know about him completely. Then there was Kurt, who he'd known for about five seconds and already knew that he was gay. Nico smiled.

"Sounds cool. I'll check it out some time."

Maybe it was time to make his family a little bigger.

XoooX

"If di Angelo's joining, I don't see why I have to as well." Thalia muttered as Nico bit into his chicken sandwich. Sally was a godsend, with her ability at actually making food. Mostly because some of the food here looked ready to grow legs and run. It was quite creepy, actually. "I mean, one of us is enough."

"The more people the better." Annabeth hummed, spearing a piece of pasta with her fork and sticking it in her mouth. "The more people we meet, the more chance we're gonna find this energy source. Then we're done, and we don't have to go to school any more if we don't want to."

"Why do we have to learn Spanish, anyway?" Percy muttered, glaring at his blue cookies as though they had personally offended him. "I'm fluent in Ancient Greek and Latin - that should count for something."

"As they're dead languages," Nico hummed. "I highly doubt that they should." Percy pulled a face.

"Ugh."

"But back to the actual matter." Annabeth piped up, authoritative as always and Nico managed to not gag as Percy stared at her almost adoringly. "Thalia, you're joining along with Nico."

"But -"

"No buts."

"Hey, mind if we join you?" Nico turned, grinning, to look at Kurt and the girl with him. She was black, with dark hair and eyes and she was relatively pretty, he guessed.

"Not at all." Nico gestured to the spare seat next to him and Kurt took it, the girl sitting opposite him."Who's this?"

"Mercedes Jones." Mercedes smiled, and her eyes flickered to Percy. "Which one of you stuck up for my boo?"

"That would be me." Nico smiled. "Nico di Angelo. This is Thalia Grace, Annabeth Chase and Percy Jackson."

"No offence." Mercedes started. "But you don't look like the saving type."

"I get that a lot." Nico shrugged, oblivious to the look Thalia shot Mercedes. An 'insult him and you die' kind of look. "I'm not exactly a knight in shining armour."

"Appearance wise, no." Kurt said. "But still. You're alright. Although your fashion sense leaves much to be desired." Nico elbowed him and Kurt returned it, laughing. "Have you thought about joining Glee, anyway?"

"Yeah, figured I'd give it a shot." Nico shrugged.

"And Thalia here will be joining in." Annabeth had snagged Thalia before she could slip off. Now Annabeth had her arm wrapped around a disgruntled huntress, who looked ready to shoot Annabeth in the head with an arrow. Nico hated to admit that he would really, really enjoy seeing that. "Not Percy and I, though - can't sing to save our lives, unfortunately." Annabeth put on a very convincing smile.

"Oh, that's too bad." Mercedes hummed. "Well, Nico and Thalia can meet us in the choir room after school tomorrow."

"Yeah, rehearsals." Kurt blinked, as though he'd briefly forgotten, but smiled nonetheless.

"Do we have to have something prepared?" Thalia seemed to have accepted her fate and was now giving her lunch a look that Nico was sure should ignite it. Or something similar. Kurt shrugged.

"It would be nice, I guess, but we're more of an 'accept everyone' sort of group."

"Maybe try something short and sweet." Mercedes added. "That could work. Just so we know you actually can sing. You might want to sign up now, though. Before the sign up sheet is desecrated. Again." Nico winced.

"Yeah, that might be a good idea. C'mon Thalia." Thalia grumbled and got to her feet and the two walked away.

"When I accepted this," Thalia began, picking at her jumper. "I don't remember 'singing' being one of the conditions." Nico snorted.

XoooX

Glee club was nothing like what Nico expected.

He expected a group of kids who weren't exactly popular, who were more in the background. So seeing Cheerios was not, exactly, expected.

Kurt and Mercedes were there obviously, and that was comforting, to see familiar faces. He mentally catalogued the faces - the three cheerios, two blonde, one brunette. There were two Asian kids - one guy, who had his arm flung around the girl's shoulders. She had blue streaks in her hair. There was one guy, brunet, who was ridiculously tall, sat with a much smaller girl, who looked rather disgruntled. There was a boy in a wheelchair, with glasses, a blond boy with a rather large looking mouth, and another with a mohawk, giving off Ares-esque vibes. He was looking at Thalia curiously and Nico had to stifle a laugh at the thought of anyone attempting to hit on Thalia.

The idea...it was insane.

"So, you two want to join?" The teacher, Mr Schue, was most definitely an improvement on Mr D. He was friendly and open, but Nico had only met him once, in his Spanish class, so wasn't one hundred percent sure what to make of him just yet.

"More like forced." Thalia hissed under her breath. Nico stepped on her foot and smiled charmingly at Mr Schue.

"Yeah." He replied. He swore he saw Kurt attempting not to laugh at his act. "We have something prepared. It's a duet, if that's ok?"

"Uh, yeah, that's fine." Mr Schue took a seat and Thalia handed the sheet music over to the guy on the piano.

"We'll be singing 'Just a Kiss' by Lady Antebellum." Nico gave his best dazzling smile before the music started and Thalia began.

_Lying here with you so close to me_

_It's hard to fight these feelings_

_When it feels so hard to breathe_

_Caught up in this moment_

_Caught up in your smile_

She looked sad when she sang it, but her voice was beautiful, as Nico remembered when they'd practiced. Thalia hadn't looked as sad, then, but it seemed to add an almost ethereal quality to her voice. Nico was so intently listening to it, he nearly missed his cue, but caught himself in time.

_I've never opened up to anyone_

_It's so hard to hold back_

_When I'm holdin' you in my arms_

_But we don't need to rush this_

_Let's just take it slow_

He didn't think his voice was as beautiful as Thalia's, didn't even entertain the thought, but his gaze caught Kurt's, who gave him a smile and a thumbs up, which boosted Nico's confidence drastically. Thalia gave him a wink, before they sang the chorus together.

_Just a kiss on your lips in the moonlight_

_Just a touch of the fire burning so bright_

_No, I don't wanna mess this thing up_

_I don't want push too far_

_Just a shot in the dark that you just might_

_Be the one I've been waiting for my whole life_

_So baby I'm alright_

_With just a kiss goodnight_

Nico had to admit that they did sound good together, and from Mr Schue's nodding he seemed to agree. The smallest girl there seemed to be silently fuming and Nico couldn't help but wonder why. Thalia looked smug, though, as she sung the bridge herself.

_No, I don't want to say goodnight_

_I know it's time to leave_

_But you'll be in my dreams_

_Tonight_

_Tonight_

_Tonight_

The last word they sung together, before one more round of the chorus. They finished with the Glee club clapping, Mr Schue retaking his place at the front as he did so.

"Wow, guys, that was brilliant." Nico gave an awkward smile and Thalia flipped her hair in a gesture that probably looked like she had no doubts about her excellence. "Take a seat - we're preparing for Sectionals so it's mostly going to be song discussion." The two did as asked, Thalia making her way over to where one of the blonde Cheerio's was waving her over and Nico took the spare seat next to Kurt. The boy grinned.

"I must say, I wasn't expecting that - you've got Rachel worried." Nico tilted his head.

"The small one, right?"

"Oh, yeah." Mercedes blinked. "You don't know anyone. Introductions - the mohawk is Puck, the tall one is Finn. He and Rachel are dating. Artie's the guy in the wheelchair, Mike and Tina are the Asians, and are dating. Blond guy is Sam, then you have Sanatana, the brunette Cheerio, Quinn is the one who waved Thalia over and finally is Brittany."

"And then you have our fabulous selves." Kurt added. Nico nodded. It was going to take a while to remember everyone, but he could do it. He'd fought in a war, after all. "So, what do you think so far?"

"It, surprisingly, isn't as terrifying as I expected." Nico admitted. Mercedes grinned.

"You haven't experienced Rachel yet - now that, is scary." Kurt let out a quiet laugh and Nico smiled. As Thalia said, singing wasn't a part of the contract.

He couldn't regret having to.

XoOoX

Righty-o, here's a re-write for you!

Since Dalton updated (which was ages ago), I've been on a Dalton high so here's my re-done 'Singing' Wasn't in my Contract fic, with some changes.

Some changes;

No Fahra and Ethan

Some ships shall be taken away, some added - curious? PM me and I'll tell you them. Or, well, hints.

It's gonna focus more around Neeks and Dalton

ANYway, this will be quite a bit different from the previous fic - it will be more original, more my ideas and, therefore, more random.

The song used is;

Just a Kiss - Lady Antebellum

Read, review and all that jazz! ~ Jazz xx


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